Bane

As the only Batman villain to ever break and completely defeat Batman, Bane is a foe to be reckoned with.

Born in prison, Bane committed his first murder at the age of eight. Unusually smart, physically powerful, and an amazing fighter, Bane is the complete package.

During his time in prison, Bane is injected with an experimental drug known as Venom, which greatly increases his abilities. However, he must take it every 12 hours with injections directly to the brain.

Since his childhood, Bane has been haunted by a vision of a bat. Following his escape from prison, Bane becomes obsessed with defeating Batman – convinced that he is the reason for his nightmares.

During the Knightfall storyline, Bane releases every prisoner from Arkham Asylum, resulting in Batman having to recapture all of his old enemies.

Finally, after Batman is done, Bane confronts Batman and breaks his back in Batman #497, leaving him paralyzed.

Baron Zemo

As a brilliant scientist working for the Nazis, Heinrich Zemo created many deadly weapons, including a death ray and several androids.

Zemo begins wearing a hood to conceal his identity. During a battle with Captain America, one of Zemo's inventions, Adhesive-X, was spilt, causing his mask to become permanently stuck to his face, driving him insane.

Following the defeat of Germany in WWII, Zemo flees to South America and hides for many years. Later, he forms the Masters of Evil with Black Knight, Melter, Radioactive Man, Enchantress, Executioner, and Wonder Man.

Eventually, Captain America and Zemo come face to face again, resulting in Zemo's death in an avalanche.

Years later, Heinrich Zemo's son, Helmut J. Zemo, takes up where is father left off, swearing vengeance against Captain America.

Batgirl

Barbara Gordon, daughter of Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon, grew up around Batman and Robin, and knew Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson.

Librarian Babs goes to a Gotham Police Ball dressed as "Batgirl," and surprisingly finds herself battling a villain named Killer Moth, who is there to attack Bruce Wayne.

Keeping her identity a secret, she assists Bruce and later decides to branch out on her own as a real "Batgirl".

Armed with only her intellect and a skill in combat, she became the female equivalent to Batman, and was an active part of the superhero scene for years, until crippled by The Joker. After that, she became the super-hacker Oracle.

Reboots have since gotten her back on her feet.

Batman

Batman is perhaps the second-most well-known hero in all of comicdom, behind only Superman.

While you don't learn the origin, how Bruce Wayne became Batman in Detective Comics #27, you do see the grim, dark, violent, pulpy side of the Caped Crusader, long before Robin, the Boy Wonder came along.

Bruce Wayne's parents, of course, had been killed by a mugger, to which young Bruce was a horrified witness. Inspired by a bat flying in his window, he vows to avenge their murders by taking on the bat's horrifying aspect, and thereby scaring the daylights out of Gotham's criminals, a job he is still doing 74 years later.

Batroc the Leaper

George Batroc is a mercenary and master fighter, well-trained in the ways of the French kickboxing style savate.

Often hired by HYDRA or other terrorist organizations, Batroc is usually tasked with stealing an item, or to fight Captain America or Spider-Man. In the JLA/Avengers crossover, Batroc even faces Batman.

Later, Batroc joins Baron Zemo's Thunderbolts team, but eventually goes back to his favorite type of work: Mercenary for hire.

His latest mission involved stealing the remains of the original Human Torch.

Beowulf

It is hard to imagine the first appearance of a hero in 1984 when that hero had been the subject of legend since roughly 750 AD, but nonetheless this graphic novel concerns the Prince of the Geats, Beoeulf, come to save Hrothgar's mead hall from the monster Grendel.

Aside from being based on the same source material, this one-off had nothing to do with the DC Beowulf series of the 1970s.

Beowulf does not really have powers as such, except for great ability as a warrior.

Following several battles with Green Lantern and other members of the Justice League, and after multiple incarcerations, Black Hand gives up his evil ways for a short period of time, only to come back stronger and further corrupted.

Later, Black Hand is abducted by the Kroloteans alien race.

The Kroloteans perform medical experimentations on Black Hand, resulting in an increase in his power.

Blackhawk

Blackhawk led the Blackhawks, a team of ace pilots who vowed to bring down the Axis during WWII.

Blackhawk himself is rather mysterious, his real name conspicuously withheld.

He, along with the Blackhawks (there were a rotating cast of seven, representing various nationalities), flew missions from their hidden base on Blackhawk Island in Grumman XF5F Skyrocket planes, against Axis foes, masked villains, and dragon-lady type ingénues.

The series was in continuous publication from 1941 until the 1960s, outselling even Superman at its height.

DC Comics acquired Blackhawk along with most of the rest of the Quality Comics roster, and has featured him consistently.

Black Lightning

Black Lightning is Jefferson Pierce, a former Olympic athlete who returns to his boyhood home in a bad part of Metropolis as a high school teacher.

Pierce finds that the neighborhood and the school are in the grip of a dangerous street gang known as "The 100."

Jeff fought back, but the gang retaliated and created trouble in the school. He decided to combat the gang in a way that wouldn't bring any retribution back to him or the school, as a superhero.

Armed with a force-field belt that allowed him to generate lightning bolts, as well as being an Olympic-level athlete and having a limited ability to fly, Black Lightning was born. In addition to his costume, Jeff adopted a more "street" way of talking when he was Black Lightning, and wore a large afro wig.

Black Marvel

He was chosen by a "Black Feet" (sic) Indian chief as a champion of justice after he was able to outrun a deer, outswim a salmon, wrestle a bear, and shoot a bullseye with bow and arrow while blindfolded.

The chief gave him a long bow and told him that for every good deed, he could add a notch to the bow. When he got to 100 notches, he would officially be worthy of the name "Black Marvel."

Black Marvel didn't stay around long enough to get all 100 notches, disappearing with most of Timely Comics' other heroes after WWII.

Black Panther

T'Challa was the prince of the Panther Tribe in the fictional, hidden African nation of Wakanda.

He had gained Panther powers of enhanced strength, speed, and agility through a ritual that involved the use of sacred herbs, and summons the Fantastic Four to Wakanda to test them and ask for their help.

Eventually, he journeys to the USA, and ends up joining the Avengers. He has been associated ever since with them, on and off.

It is worth noting that the Black Panther was the first black superhero published by any company, and that his debut preceded the creation of the Black Panther Party.

Black Terror

Black Terror was pharmacist Bob Benton, who got into the merchandise a bit, doing some experimenting and mixing until he came up with something he called "formic ethers" by adding formic acid from red ants to some other chemicals.

The formic ethers, when inhaled, gave Benton super strength and invulnerability. He procured a black suit with death's head logo and a cape, and then procured a sidekick named Tim, whom he outfitted similarly with costume and ethers, and they formed a duo called The Terror Twins.

Black Terror lasted until 1949, and after Nedor's collapse, the character ended up in the public domain.

Blazing Skull

The Blazing Skull was an ordinary man named Mark Todd who, while covering the second Sino-Japanese War, took cover from artillery fire in a cave.

There, he met The Skull Men, a race of human beings with flaming skulls for heads. They told him that he was their new champion of justice, and trained him in their ways, eventually making him invulnerable to fire and granting him other super-powers.

He returned home to America, designed a costume with a mask that looked like a flaming skull in their honor, and embarked on a career of crime fighting.

Bloodsport

Robert DuBois is a mercenary that is hired by Lex Luthor to kill Superman.

Taking the name Bloodsport, DuBois uses advanced weaponry made of kryptonite, Superman's only true weakness.

During a lengthy battle, Bloodsport is able to cause a significant amount of damage to Metropolis and Superman, but is stopped when he is confronted by his brother, who forces him to surrender. DuBois is promptly incarcerated.

Later, DuBois is killed by another prisoner who is also using the alias Bloodsport.

Blue Beetle (Dan Garret)

The first Blue Beetle was a rookie cop who decided that he also needed to fight crime in his time off.

Initially, he had no superpowers, and wore a blue suit with matching fedora and mask. Later, he acquired a set of blue, bulletproof tights, and something called "Vitamin 2X" that gave him double strength, speed, etc.

He always had his blue scarab beetle emblem, however, and over time he gained (perhaps from the scarab) some more significant super-powers (x-ray vision, flight) without explanation, only to lose them again, in similarly unexplained fashion.

This Dan Garret is not the same as the later, Charlton version of the Blue Beetle, even though the Charlton version is named Dan Garrett.

Booster Gold

Booster Gold is a 25th-century man named Michael Jon Carter, who travels back in time to the 20th-century to become famous as a superhero.

In the 25th century, he'd stolen artifacts from the Metropolis Space Musuem like a Legion of Super-Heroes flight ring, and Brainiac-5's force field belt, before using Rip Hunter's old time machine to transport him back to the 20th century.

Once there, he showed off, planning to use his superhero fame to create a profitable corporation based on his image.

He had intended to use the superhero name Goldstar, but got mush-mouthed when telling the President his name, conflating it with his old football-team nickname, Booster, inadvertently identifying himself as Booster Gold. The name stuck, to his chagrin.

He joined the JLA and then Extreme Justice, and for a time called himself Supernova.

His powers mostly come from stolen devices, including flight, force fields, and super-strength.

Bozo the Iron Man

Bozo the Iron Man was a large robot, used by a mysterious gent named Hugh Hazzard to help fight crime.

Initially a tool to commit crimes, the robot was repurposed by Hazzard into stopping villainy, and given the ability to fly as well. Hazzard names him "Bozo", for reasons that are lost to the mists of time.

After 42 issues of Smash Comics, Bozo lost his luster, and when Quality was liquidated in 1956, he was acquired by DC, who has not seen fit to have Bozo make any further appearances.

Buck Rogers

Buck Rogers began as a character in stories in several pulp magazines, written by Philip Francis Nowlan.

After a year of growing popularity, a daily newspaper comic strip was launched, written by Nowlan and drawn by Dick Calkins.

Buck Rogers is a man with a job surveying the lower levels of an abandoned mine outside of Pittsburgh, PA. There are strange gases in the mine, and after a cave-in, Buck is somehow preserved deep below the earth in a state of suspended animation for 500 years, emerging into a 25th century torn apart by war, but which is nonetheless a technological wonderland.

After rescuing Wilma Deering, soon to be his love interest, Buck embarks on a series of adventures and attacks against the Airlords who have taken over America.

Bulletman and Bulletgirl

Fashioning a bullet-shaped "Gravity Regulator Helmet" which allowed him to fly, and taking a chemical formula he created called the "crime cure," which gave him extra strength and intelligence, Jim Barr became Bulletman.

He was the son of a police officer slain in the line of duty, and vowed to do his part to stop crime. He couldn't pass the police physical, but got a job in ballistics, where he worked on the "crime cure" and the helmet.

He outfitted his girlfriend with a similar helmet, and gave her the "crime cure" as well, turning her into Bulletgirl.

They fought crime together until 1953, when Fawcett ceased operations. Now owned by DC, the two have been shoehorned into the WWII-era DC continuity as part of the All-Star Squadron.

Buzz

Buzz, in an alternate reality, is the grandson of J. Jonah Jameson, and eventually the teammate of Spider-Girl (May Parker, daughter of Peter and Mary Jane Parker) in The New Warriors.

Buzz was brought along to a demonstration of Human Fly battle armor by his grandfather, and after Buzz Bannon, a Navy SEAL who was testing out the armor, was killed by Dr. Jade, JJ puts on the armor and eventually tracked down Jade.

JJ has no super-powers of his own, but his armor gives him the powers of flight, super-strength, and the ability to shoot electrical blasts (the "Bug Zapper"), and an adhesive ("Fly Paper").